Marble Madness is an arcade video game designed by Mark Cerny, and published by Atari Games in 1984. It is a platform game in which the player must guide an onscreen marble through six courses, populated with obstacles and enemies, within a time limit. The player controls the marble by using a trackball. Marble Madness is known for using innovative game technologies. It was Atari's first to use the Atari System 1 hardware and to be programmed in the C programming language. The game was also one of the first to use true stereo sound; previous games used either monaural sound or simulated stereo.
In designing the game, Cerny drew inspiration from miniature golf, racing games, and artwork by M. C. Escher. He aimed to create a game that offered a distinct experience with a unique control system. Cerny applied a minimalist approach in designing the appearance of the game's courses and enemies. Throughout development, he was frequently impeded by limitations in technology and had to forgo several design ideas.
Upon its release, Marble Madness was commercially successful, becoming a profitable arcade game. Praise among critics focused on the game's difficulty, unique visual design, and stereo soundtrack. The game was ported to numerous platforms and inspired the development of other games. A sequel was developed and planned for release in 1991, but canceled when location testing showed the game could not succeed in competition with other titles.
Reviewer:unhappyelf -
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
November 11, 2015 Subject:
Awesome
Worked Great, now all I need is a trackball!
Reviewer:tide75 -
favorite -
July 2, 2015 Subject:
don't work!
the game not start!
Reviewer:ReggieJ -
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April 9, 2015 Subject:
Its not working.
Damn I wanted to play this one too.
Reviewer:Pitfighter1 -
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
December 10, 2014 Subject:
Ground Round
I remember playing this game in the now defunct chain Ground Round and I loved it. What a cool game where you use a tracball to move the marble. The game is really hard and requires a high skill level. I remember dumping tons of quarters into this machine. This version works somewhat ok but the sound and movement is def off. 5 star rating as it was super cool back when I was a kid!
Reviewer:Blurderz -
favorite -
November 22, 2014 Subject:
Can't run
I have tried running these games many times with no prevail. Each time raging more. I would really like to play these classic all-stars of games in retro history but just can't. Please help. Thank you.